This is a national phase filing of the Application No. PCT/DE95/01817, which was filed with the Patent Corporation Treaty on Dec. 15, 1995, and is entitled to priority of the German Patent Application P 44 44 949.6, filed Dec. 16, 1994.
The present invention relates to vectors and viruses suitable for use in gene therapy, processes for the production thereof and their use.
Common oncotherapy comprises the surgical removal of the tumor and the patient""s aftertreatment by means of irradiation and/or systemic application of cytostatic agents. By means of the aftertreatment it is tried to kill non-removed tumor tissue and metastases formed, respectively.
However, common oncotherapies show little success. In particular, side-effects such as induction of secondary tumors, damage of internal organs or pains frequently occur in aftertreated patients.
Thus, it is the object of the present invention to provide means serving for improving common oncotherapies and avoiding particularly the above side effects.
The present invention relates to a vector suitable for use in gene therapy, which comprises an expressible insert DNA which codes for the DNA binding domain of a poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase or for an at least partially catalytically inactive poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase. Furthermore, this invention concerns processes for the preparation of such a vector and viruses suitable for use in gene therapy.